When I Grow Up - Harper Collins Australia


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When I Grow Up Written by Andrew Daddo Illustrations by Jonathan Bentley Book Summary: The new picture book from much-loved duo Andrew Daddo and Jonathan Bentley. What do you want to be when you grow up? A performer? An astronaut? A secret agent? From the team who brought you FIRST DAY and CHECK ON ME comes a gorgeous and funny new picture book about big dreams and even bigger imaginations!

Curriculum Areas and Key Learning Outcomes: Language and Literacy Visual Arts

Appropriate Ages: Ages 3+

ISBN: 978 0 7333 3341 5 (hardback) ISBN: 978 1 4607 0281 9 (ebook) Notes by Simone Evans Notes bynotes Simone Evans These may be reproduced free of charge for use and study within schools but they may not be reproduced (either in whole or in part) and offered for commercial sale. Page 1

Contents 

Introduction



About the author



About the Illustrator



Study notes on themes and curriculum areas 1. Themes and key discussion points a) Dreams b) Imagination c) Individuality 2. Curriculum areas and key learning outcomes (linked with themes)

OUTCOME 1: CHILDREN HAVE A STRONG SENSE OF IDENTITY OUTCOME 2: CHILDREN ARE CONNECTED WITH AND CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR WORLD. (Children respond to diversity with respect)

a. Literacy and language during reading: questions for discussion b. Literacy and language after reading: oral language activities c. Visual arts activities 

About the author of the notes

These notes may be reproduced free of charge for use and study within schools but they may not be reproduced (either in whole or in part) and offered for commercial sale. Page 2

These notes may be reproduced free of charge for use and study within schools but they may not be reproduced (either in whole or in part) and offered for commercial sale. Page 3

Introduction In this story we meet a teacher and seven of her students. The teacher begins the story by telling her class that when she grows up she would like to be the school principal, before asking them what they want to be when they grow up…. One by one we learn what dream jobs these seven children have in mind and what they imagine these jobs might actually look like! We meet a future hairdresser who tames goldy locks; an inventor who invents miraculous things; an astronaut who floats around in space; a writer with big stories to tell; and a secret agent with bulletproof hair! But our the final child knows that she can grow up to be ‘lots of things’ (her mother tells her so). She knows that she could be… a doctor, a magician, a firewoman, a chef, a tennis player, a vet, a racing car driver, a scientist, or even a MAD scientist… and that would be really cool, but the most important thing is that she just wants to be herself.

About the Author Andrew Daddo is one of Australia's most popular television personalities. He started writing for children in 2001, when his first collection of stories, SPRUNG!, was published. Since then, Andrew has written more than twenty books, including the hugely successful picture book collaboration with Emma Quay, GOOD NIGHT, ME. Andrew lives on Sydney's northern beaches with his wife and three children.

These notes may be reproduced free of charge for use and study within schools but they may not be reproduced (either in whole or in part) and offered for commercial sale. Page 4

About the Illustrator – Jonathan Bentley Jonathan has been an Editorial Illustrator at the Courier Mail newspaper for ten years, and has illustrated books for Margaret Wild, The Wiggles and Andrew Daddo. Jonathan likes to work with a range of materials including acrylics, oils, and line and watercolour, and he looks forward to the day when he has a big barn-like studio somewhere in the countryside.

Study Notes on Themes and Curriculum Areas Themes and key discussion points a) Dreams In this story we are introduced to seven children who all dream of being something different when they grow up. This story reminds us that everyone has dreams and that it is important to believe you can do whatever it is you want to do. Dreams help people (young and old) to aspire and to achieve. Discussion Points: What do you want to be when you grow up? Do you know? Do you dream of doing something extraordinary (like being an astronaut who travels into space) or do you dream of living a nice quiet life on earth? Do you have dreams about things that you want to achieve? Perhaps you have already achieved some of your dreams... have you? b) Imagination The children in this story have lively, vivid imaginations. The detailed dreams they describe are only possible with active, healthy imaginations! Discussion Points: What are the benefits of having an active imagination? When do we use our imaginations? Have you imagined something today? What? Do you think our imaginations can help us to achieve our dreams? Explain why/why not. c) Individuality

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After considering all the things that she could be when she grows up, the little girl at the end of the story tells us that she just wants to be herself. Discussion Points: What do you think she means by saying that she just wants to ‘be me’? Why is being ‘yourself’ so important? Is it possible to be someone else? Can you have the job that you want when you grow up and still be yourself?

Curriculum areas and key learning outcomes a)

Literacy and language during reading: questions for discussion

These questions can be discussed after the story has been read through once, or upon a second reading. They are designed to support students’ engagement with the text and develop their visual literacy and comprehension skills. 1. Look carefully at the objects on the cover of the book. Who might these objects belong to? If you could choose one object to represent you, what would it be? 2. Have a look at the dedication that the author Andrew Daddo makes to ‘Whoops and Parps’. Who do you think these people might be? What is the significance of Andrew suggesting that they are still ‘growing up’? 3. Have a look at the dedication that the illustrator Jonathan Bentley makes to his Mum and Dad. Do you think his parents encouraged him to express his individuality? Could this have helped him to become a successful children’s book illustrator? 4. The class teacher tells us that when she grows up she would like to be the principal. Can a teacher still grow up? When do we stop ‘growing up’? 5. The first girl would like to be a hairdresser when she grows up. Have you been to a hairdresser recently? Why do you think hairdressers hear ‘lots of stories’? These notes may be reproduced free of charge for use and study within schools but they may not be reproduced (either in whole or in part) and offered for commercial sale. Page 6

6. Who do you know of that has ‘goldy locks’. Which famous fairy tale character springs to mind? 7. Why do you think the illustrator Jonathan Bentley has chosen to draw the little girl standing on a giant ponytail of goldy locks? What effect does this have on you the reader? How does it make you feel? 8. If you invented an ‘invention inventor’ how do you think it would work? What would it do? How many inventions would it think of in one day? Would it run out of ideas? 9. Jonathan Bentley has drawn the little girl who wants to be an astronaut standing on a chair, wearing her school backpack. Do you think he has drawn her wearing this for a reason? What does it remind you of? 10. Whose ‘whizz-bang rocketship’ is the astronaut referring to? 11. Do you know why astronauts ‘float’ in space? 12. Why do you think the sun is ‘always up’ in space? What could this mean? 13. It’s a funny idea that you could write stories ‘so big you would have to stuff them into books’. What might the author Andrew Daddo mean by this? 14. The future writer imagines pirates, goblins, dragons, magicians, princes and princesses in his book. Who are some other characters that you commonly find in books? Who is the best character you have ever met in a book? 15. Why does the future secret agent tell us to ‘shhhh’ and ‘be quiet’? What do you think secret agents do? 16. The future performer has lots of great dance moves! Can you pick some of the ‘styles’ of dancing that she is doing in Jonathan’s Bentley illustrations? 17. Do you think the teacher is pleased with the answers that she got from her class? Why/why not? b) Literacy and language after reading: oral language activities These notes may be reproduced free of charge for use and study within schools but they may not be reproduced (either in whole or in part) and offered for commercial sale. Page 7

Activity: The future inventor has lots of wonderful ideas for inventions but there must be many more ideas out there for anyone with an imagination! Close your eyes for five minutes and imagine that you are the inventor’s ‘invention inventor’. What are you going to invent today? Think carefully about what your invention is called, what it looks like and what it does exactly. Then, in sixty seconds, present your invention to the class. Describe it in as much detail as possible and be prepared to answer questions about your invention. (Hint – be prepared to think and talk quickly on your feet!) Activity: The future writer imagines lots of characters for his ‘big’ books. He plans on writing about pirates, goblins, dragons, magicians, princes and princesses. Have a careful look at the illustrations of each character and what they are doing. Imagine that you are the writer and you have to think of some titles for each of your books. What titles would you choose? Take turns sharing your ideas with the class. Activity: The secret agent has lots of weird and wonderful objects to help him do his job. Study these pages carefully and name all the objects at his disposal. As a class go around the circle and take turns describing a situation that the agent would use one of these items in. Your situation can be as imaginative and fantastical as you like but you only have 30 seconds to describe it! Activity: The future astronaut thinks that being an astronaut is going to be ‘astronomical!’ What does this word mean? Does it mean more than one thing? Consult your class dictionary and record the meanings of this word on your classroom wall. Take turns using this word in different sentences. c) Visual Arts

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These activities include some suggestions for short art activities that can be completed independently as well as one whole-classroom art activity that is designed to be carried out over a number of weeks. Activity: Re-read the description of the haircuts that the future hairdresser gives her clients and study the illustrations of each hair-do: ‘Imagine the buns and the braids… the bobs and the beehives! The boys will have buzzcuts or bowls.’ It’s time to find out what you would look like with all these different haircuts! Start by drawing a portrait of yourself (head and shoulders only) on cardboard (use a photograph or a mirror for reference) but make sure you draw yourself with no hair at all. On a separate piece of cardboard draw a series of different hairstyles from the description to the same scale as your portrait. These hairstyles should be carefully cut out so they can be placed on top of your portrait to look as though you are changing hairstyles. Experiment with different colours if you like! Activity: Jonathan Bentley created the illustrations in the book using charcoal pencil and watercolour paints. Experiment with watercolours and pencil on thick watercolour paper to paint your own ‘whizz bang new rocketship’. Carefully consider what your ship looks like and what colours you would like to use. Try mixing the watercolours together gently on the paper and creating very light washes of colour with your brush. Activity: Examine Jonathan Bentley’s alien illustrations. There is no photographic evidence of aliens on earth so these are wonderful creatures to test our powers of imagination! If you were the illustrator for this page, what would your aliens look like? Without thinking too hard about it start drawing (in

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coloured pencil) whatever alien comes into your head. Remember, you can make it as crazy and different as you like! Activity: Study your peers carefully and think about what everyone would look like after they had come out of the future inventor’s ‘tallness machine’. Would their whole bodies grow in proportion or would they just grow really long legs? Or long torsos? Let’s find out! Each person in the class needs to take a piece of A3 paper and place it in portrait (not landscape) on their desks before folding it horizontally six times underneath itself. On the top piece draw a head (yours or someone else’s) and the beginning of the neck, before passing it to the person on your right…. That person will draw the neck and shoulders to the elbows before passing it to their right… the next person draws the elbows to hips, then the next draws the hips to knees, the next draws the knees to ankles and the last draws the ankles to feet. As your drawing is being passed around the classroom you will be receiving other students’ drawings as well. Do not look at anyone else’s drawings and the end result will be a big shock. Your people will be very tall but you may be surprised which bits of their bodies have stretched! Activity: Over a series of weeks, create wearable art for a classroom character fashion parade. For this activity, each student will create a costume for one of the characters in the book out of found/collected objects. 1. As a class, look at some clips of fashion parades featuring wearable art (some suggested web links for teachers below). 2. Decide on a date for the class fashion show and invite some neighbouring classrooms (you may like to book a spot at assembly as well). 3. Choose a character from the book or think about who you want to be when you grow up and choose that character. 4. As a class, begin collecting interesting objects from home and school that could be fashioned into a costume. Material, buttons, old clothes, egg cartons,

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plastic ‘bits and bobs’, newspapers, aluminium foil, pillows, glass jars, old kitchen utensils and feathers are all ideas, but the options are endless! 5. Before ‘building’ your wearable art you will need to sketch your character in detail (or use the illustrations from the book as inspiration) and also detail all the objects that your character carries. 6. Consider the materials in the classroom that are available to you and note these on your drawing to help you plan the structure of your costume. Think carefully about how you are going to construct it before you start. 7. Begin to build your artwork. You will need plenty of glue and tape and string to fix everything together (adult volunteers can help sew things in place too). 8. After you have finished your costume, don’t forget to make at least one item for your character to carry. This will help identify them. 9. Practise how your character moves and choose a song for your character to walk down the runway to. It would be good if the song said something specific about your character! 10. Before you ‘perform’ think about any make up or hairstyles that will compliment your wearable art! For example, any secret agents in the class may like to use lots of hairspray to create their very own ‘bulletproof hair’! 11. Have fun!

About the Author of the Teachers’ Notes Simone Evans attended Newtown High School of the Performing Arts before completing a Bachelor of Media and Communications at Charles Sturt University and later, a Graduate Diploma of Learning & Teaching with the University of Southern Queensland. She has helped produce theatre and festivals in Australia and England, taught primary school classes in sunny Byron Bay and is now the Education Coordinator at Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney.

These notes may be reproduced free of charge for use and study within schools but they may not be reproduced (either in whole or in part) and offered for commercial sale. Page 11